Sunday, January 17, 2010

Driving Schools yet to implement seat belts

The RTO, which is collecting fines from car drivers who do not wear seat belts, has surprisingly overlooked to enforce this basic rule for the Driving Schools in city. A seat belt, also known as safety belt, protects the driver from causing head as well as spinal injuries at the time of accidents or sometimes when brakes are applied suddenly. Even the person seated next to the driver should compulsorily wear the seat belt as it prevents him from falling on the driver and thereby lose control of vehicle.The correct practice is to wear the seat belt before starting the vehicle. But unfortunately in our city some of the driving schools are not following this rule. Star of Mysore spoke to trainee drivers in some of the driving schools about wearing seat belts. "No, they never told me to wear the seat belt. Besides, these vehicles being of old models, they are not equipped with seat belt facilities. We were only explained about various parts of the car and their workings," says a trainee in a prestigious driving school."The trainers used to take me around the city to familiarise me driving in the busy traffic. I often got nervous, seeing heavy vehicles approaching from the opposite direction, and so I frequently applied sudden brakes. Once I even asked for the seat belt but they said there was no need of the belt for learners," says Lakshmana who has undergone training in a driving school.When a trainer was questioned, how he could teach without wearing a seat belt, he replied, "As the rule was implemented just a few days ago, we need some time to follow this and install seat belt for the vehicles."Some trainers said, "Usually, we don’t allow trainees to cross the speed limit of 35 kmph and we also have an extra set of hand brakes. In case of emergency we use these hand brakes so that the trainees can drive safely." As per the Supreme Court directive issued in 1994, drivers and occupants in front seat of all four-wheelers must fasten seat belts without fail. The Central Motor Vehicles Rule also stipulates that the manufacturer of every four-wheeler vehicle should equip the vehicle with a seat belt."New models of cars are coming with seat belts and if needed we can fit belts to older models too," says an automobile dealer. Seat belts are compulsory in all government and private vehicles as part of road safety measures. But many of them cite the reason of ‘inconvenience’ for not using seat belts. To familiarise the practice of wearing seat belts, the authorities concerned would do well to hold public awareness campaigns on road safety and importance of wearing seat belts along with enforcement of law.[Wednesday 16th September 2009]